UConn Football Coach Bob Diaco And The Q&A From Middlesex Chamber Of Commerce Breakfast (Part III)

DESMOND CONNERThe Hartford Courant

Part III from Middlesex Chamber of Commerce Breakfast where UConn Football coach Bob Diaco was guest speaker.

Here he takes a few questions from the crowd...

First question, after all we were in Middlesex County, was about quarterback Tim Boyle who played his high school football about 20, 25 minutes at Xavier (maybe a little less up Route 9) from where Diaco was standing Wednesday.

Tim is a fine a young man. We can acknowledge his parents (Kevin and Nancy) right here, second table back. Tim is going to a spectacular quarterback for UConn into the future. He started a fierce competition. He has a massive amount of tools. Building him back up after what I consider to be just a disaster for him a year ago and not his fault, so emotionally building back up, confidently building him back up, caring for him; physically changing his body. He’s turned himself into a fierce competitor. Through fall camp he had some small nagging issues physically that prevented him amongst those three [quarterback competition with recently named starter Casey Cochran and Chandler Whitmer] with that being a part of the last 2 ½ weeks. What we’re going to do for Tim is we’re going to work to protect him. We’re going to work to protect his year and get his year back and he’s a four to play three. He’s going to be a great quarterback for us. He needs to prepare to go into the games, to win the games. So we’re going to keep him up. He’s going to be working with the offense. He’s going to be game-planning our opponents and he’s going to be preparing himself to play winning football. If called upon we will not hesitate. I’m telling you right now: called upon Game one; called upon Game seven, called upon Game 12 to go in to win the game he won’t hesitate and we won’t hesitate as a staff – but we’re not going to burn his year on meaningless downs.

Next question was about linebacker Graham Stewart who also played at The X.

“Graham is going to play outside linebacker for us. He’s always been a physically gifted player. He’s very quick, very fast, very strong for a compact-sized body. What we’re working on now and what he’s working on is his eye progression, his eye key progression and overall, just the understanding of do your job. Do your job. After your job is accomplished which is an art form to figure out when that is then you can help someone else with their job but do your job. So his world, we’re working diligently on him doing his job and eye key progression to do his job.

We’re in a foundational building phase even though it’s nine months in and the game is just a few days away and that foundation needs to cure and it’s needs reinforcing and that can only happen with time and Graham is a perfect example. Whether we have enough time with him to get his game where it would need to be as good as it can be we’ll see. The understanding for example of our defensive, offensive and special teams systems are at 100 level piece but they can go all the way up to 400 level. They can go all the way up to Ph.D. And that just takes time. It takes experience. You know we can’t necessarily talk about formation recognition and the plays that you’re going to see from particular formations yet if the player is still learning exactly what his assignment is and what his key is, so we’re getting ready to take that next step with Graham, specifically. He’s ready for that next step. He’s ready to go from 100 level to 200 level which is a great thing for our team.

Diaco was asked to comment on the departed Lyle McCombs even though he may not want to.

“No, listen, we’re not hiding from anything….I wish that student athlete the best. When those things come to pass and there’s been a good amount – and there will be a few more – because some people just can’t keep up with the pace of everything that we’re doing physically, mentally, emotionally. And when that happens I want for them, wish for them. I’m still available to them and their needs but the team has to conduct its business a particular way. Nobody is special. Nobody is different. Nobody gets favoritism. Everybody is under the same microscope. Everybody is being evaluated every day with everything that they do all the time and decisions like that have to be made.

Next: What kind of offense will you be running this year?

“At the point in our program right now there’s no secrets we can’t give up. We’re working on character and character beats plays every day of the week, any day of the week, when character is matched up against scheme in whatever you’re doing, whether you’re building cars or working at a bank or putting a football team together. Our defense needs to keep the points down. They need to stay above the cuts. We can’t allow the team to punch a hole in the top of the defense. Punching a hole in the defense is done through explosive play passes and long runs; assignment errors, missed alignments, poor angles, lazy pursuit and bad tackling are the hallmarks of those things. So we need to eliminate that. If the team can’t score they’re going to have a hard time winning. Offensively, we want to attack and work to impose our will on the opponent and I want it to look like that. I want you all to show up at the game and watch the team impose their will on the opponent. That takes work physically, we have to recruit to that model and we have to conduct a style of game to that model. And it’s not just running the ball although that’s a key component. I learned as a player, as my defensive coordinator [at Iowa] Bill Brazier, said, the team throws for 300 yards you’ll still have a chance to win. A team runs for 300 yards you got no chance to win. Game over – but we’ll also work to create matchups. If we can see Geremy Davis with a matchup issue. We need to be able to exploit that and continue to go to it and pulverize the opponent, physically impose our will on that one individual matchup for as long as they’ll let us. You’re going to see the guys having fun. You’re going to see them flying around. You’re going to see great effort. You’re going to see great relationships. You’re going to see great care. How long it lasts is what the question is and I can’t answer that because very soon there is going to be applied pressure and the true structure, the true strength will be shown under that pressure. That strength only comes with time. I’m interested to see how strong we’ve made it in the nine months we’ve been together. How quick it cracks, when it cracks and what the crack looks like under that pressure. But you’re going to see a team that loves each other. You’re going to see a team that respects what we’re doing and we’re going to show that respect and honor and love through our effort and attention to detail and the joy that we exude doing what we do. And that’s what the offense, defense and special teams should look like.

He was asked about the teams on the schedule and you’ve heard him address that before. We’ll move onto another one about how he will going about changing the recent losing ways at UConn.

“We have to create victories and we've had to create victories so we've had benchmarks throughout the year in winter conditioning, spring football, summer conditioning and fall camp of moments of competition where there's an evaluation and a successful moment and it's celebrated. It's celebrated. So we didn't just end camp, we broke camp. They won that moment. Then we celebrated. We did an engagement, fun event with the team. There's been 100 different moments like that; where we've tried to reset the energy and belief system.

And then we have a constant working developmental series of professionals that web brought in address all these topics. We've had a lecturer come in and lecture the young men on masculinity. We've had a lecturer come in and lecture the young men on perseverance and we've had a lecturer come in and lecture the young men on decision-making.

Not everybody is going to do the right thing and it's all going to work out but we're all trying. And it's working. Like I said, pressure is coming. That windstorm is coming. That's why we're working on building a strong foundation. How long it takes to get that foundation to cure we'll see but this is not being built on the sand. This is not a house of cards. This is not sticks and timbers that the big bad wolf is going to blow down. So we'll just see how long that takes."

The last question? Is the Bible your playbook for life (And this serves as his response surrounding the controversy that led to former running backs coach Ernest Jones resigning his position.

“I think that what happens is, you have two separate things happening. You have Bob Diaco who is a representative of one of the finest universities in the world, the University of Connecticut. And the University of Connecticut has and is blessed to have people from all over the world with different races, different socio-economic backgrounds, and different religious disciplines. And we don’t ever and I would never, eversay that we would impose any one parameter on them. That’s what makes the universities of this country so spectacular that everybody is allowed to chase their interests, change their interests, reshape their minds.

Then you have this other side that is Bob Diaco…Bob Diaco, the person is a Christian. And I read the Bible because I believe in the Bible. I also feel like the Bible is one of the most spectacular leadership documents from the Old Testament to the New Testament that you can read.

[Loud applause from the crowd].

And that’s me. That’s Bob Diaco. Is it our playbook? It is not. It is not our playbook. We have playbooks. We have offensive playbooks, we have defensive playbooks, we have special teams playbooks…..I want to just be sure everybody understands the University of Connecticut is one of the finest universities in the country that is made up of people from all over the world with different disciplines and interests and likes and wants and the energy on campus, created by the leaders on campus foster and cultivate all of those interest. It’s awesome and it’s a place that I love. “